Top of the Speyer

Erica Orden looks at Jerry Speyer’s role at MoMA as part of profile of the Speyers as a philanthropy power couple in New York Magazine:

How He Got the Top Job
As a trustee, Speyer helped MoMA buy the Dorset Hotel site in 1996 for its subsequent expansion. (His deal-making shaved $25 million off the price.) Then he persuaded the Giuliani administration to contribute $65 million (of the $858 million total). He became chairman in 2007.

His Next Challenge
In 2007, MoMA sold a patch of land on 54th Street to the developer Hines, which plans a 1,250-foot condo designed by Jean Nouvel. MoMA is counting on 75,000 square feet of new space in the tower—which has been “delayed indefinitely.” (It’s now at the public-review stage, albeit without full financing.)Their rivals for power: